{"id":2038,"date":"2015-06-11T09:00:25","date_gmt":"2015-06-11T09:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/?p=2038"},"modified":"2015-06-23T10:54:03","modified_gmt":"2015-06-23T10:54:03","slug":"blaze-away-brings-back-cinema-memories-of-40s","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/?p=2038","title":{"rendered":"‘Blaze Away’ brings back Cinema Memories of \u201840\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"

I received an email during the week, in response to\u00a0my newsletter – 8th<\/sup> March 2015:<\/p>\n

\u2026\u2026.which mentions Pedigree Jazz Band\u2019s special tribute to much-loved Acker Bilk, who passed away 2<\/em>nd<\/sup><\/em> November 2014 (and must surely be with that very special band in the sky).\u00a0 The number was \u2018Blaze Away\u2019. [I remember singing a version of this number at our Saturday morning pictures at the ABC Plaza\u00a0at Catford<\/span> back in late 40\u2019s!\u00a0 What fun that was. I felt sorry for the man who had to open the doors to let us kids in \u2013 he had to quickly stand back against the wall behind the door \u2013 or be trampled upon \u2013 flattened \u2013 ha!].<\/em><\/p>\n

Hi Diane,\u00a0 <\/strong>Well, well, well, would you believe it, I used to live in Catford and every Saturday morning went to the Plaza for the children’s show so we were there together – what a coincidence.\u00a0 Just been reading about your exploits and Blaze Away.\u00a0 Do you remember going up on the stage when it was your birthday and everyone singing to you?\u00a0 I used to go to the Hippodrome as well and sit on a cushion up in the gods, and later on I actually worked in the Hippodrome when they changed it to offices.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

It’s a very small world.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Love Joyful xxxx<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Oh\u00a0yes Joyful, I remember the birthdays too.\u00a0 I was one of four children in my family and we would each take it in turns to \u2018have a birthday\u2019 every other week (so over eight weeks).\u00a0 Of course, you got in for free the following week!\u00a0 Naturally, everyone would scream out that we had already had a birthday recently. I wonder if Acker was an ABC member too.<\/p>\n

Do you recall the huge black cat who \u2018owned\u2019 Catford and lived at The Lewisham Hippodrome<\/span> (situated in Catford)?\u00a0 First he would sit at the sweet counter until we were all inside.\u00a0 Then\u00a0he would join us inside, walking over everyone’s lap, hoping for some more goodies to eat\u00a0(he would especially love ice cream)\u00a0and then, he would walk across the veranda, so his shadow would be up on the screen \u2013 oh yes, I\u2019m sure he knew what he was doing – ha. The Hippodrome became the Eros Cinema<\/span>.<\/p>\n

AND<\/strong> what about the Queens Cinema<\/span>, next door – that was what we called \u2018the gods’!\u00a0 You accessed it round the side and to the back of the building. It had hard bench seats (slabs of wood actually), slanting downwards, so your whole body was almost lying down (slanting) and the screen was beyond your feet!\u00a0 I can remember the old boy who had us queuing up.\u00a0 Always seemed\u00a0bad tempered (but probably us kids, were too rowdy and\u00a0over-excited at going to the pictures, so\u00a0can you blame him).\u00a0\u00a0He had a glass eye, was a bit hunched and very short,\u00a0quite frightening, although was probably a nice old boy (probably not even old), but when you are little, your imagination works overtime aye?<\/p>\n

I also remember\u00a0the Park Cinema at Hither Green<\/span>.\u00a0 I recall seeing my first ever\u00a0film there, called ‘The Boy with the Green Hair’\u00a0starring\u00a0Dean Stockwell (1949).\u00a0 A fantastic film about prejudice.\u00a0 Because of our memories, I looked up this cinema and found out it has just been saved from being made into flats – well done the Hither Green Community Society<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Another cinema we frequented was the ol’ Splendid Cinema at Downham Way<\/span> (we would walk to all of these cinemas too!).\u00a0 One of us would pay to go in and then we would all bunk in\u00a0through the side door\u00a0(about six or seven of us) AND we were (I promise) such lovely and good kids too.<\/p>\n

I mustn\u2019t forget to mention two other cinemas, one being The Gaumant Palace<\/span>, which became The Odeon Cinema in Lewisham<\/span>. I saw many stars on the stage, one very memorable one being Nat King Cole (oh what a memory) I think about 1962, my programme has no date! The other being The Rex<\/span>, such a lovely quaint and friendly place. I think was privately run. I know there are more cinemas, but these are the ones I recall most memorably. Any responses?<\/p>\n

Love Di xxx<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I received an email during the week, in response to\u00a0my newsletter – 8th March 2015: \u2026\u2026.which mentions Pedigree Jazz Band\u2019s special tribute to much-loved Acker Bilk, who passed away 2nd November 2014 (and must surely be with that very special band in the sky).\u00a0 The number was \u2018Blaze Away\u2019. [I remember singing a version of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2038"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2056,"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2038\/revisions\/2056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/farnboroughjazz.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}